Patrick Combs (born July 5, 1966) is an American author and inspirational speaker. He is the author of Major in Success and Man 1 Bank 0 which was adapted into a one-man live stage show that has toured the United States and Europe. Combs has performed Man 1 Bank 0 to sold out audiences in Ireland and on Broadway.
Combs is an active speaker on the national college circuit, a keynote speaker for a variety of global corporations and a speaker at seminars, public and private events.
As an occasional reporter and commentator, Combs has appeared on television programs, talk shows and network specials, as well as the cover of the Harlequin Romance novel ''The Valentine Gift''. Combs also made headlines when at age 21 he delivered a stranger’s baby on a sidewalk in San Francisco without any previous medical training
Early life and education
Combs was raised in
Bend, Oregon
Bend is a city in and the county seat of Deschutes County, Oregon, United States. It is the principal city of the Bend Metropolitan Statistical Area. Bend is Central Oregon's largest city, with a population of 99,178 at the time of the 2020 U.S ...
by a single mother with his older brother Mike Combs. His mother was a nurse until she lost her job after a back injury. The family lived in poverty in a trailer on a single income with support in part by a local church. Combs would take odd jobs to help, including picking strawberries and running daily a paper route. He attended
Lewis & Clark College
Lewis & Clark College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Originally chartered in 1867 as the Albany Collegiate Institute in Albany, Oregon, the college was relocated to Portland in 1938 and in 1942 adopted the name Lewis & Cl ...
starting in 1984, and graduated
San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different b ...
in 1989 with a Bachelor of Arts.
Author
In 1992 Combs began writing his first book which became his national bestseller, Major in Success. The book, which was published by Ten Speed Press and is distributed by Random House, is currently being distributed in its fifth edition.
As a companion to his live one-man stage show, Man 1 Bank 0, in 2010 Combs wrote a novelization of it.
Speaker
Combs has made speeches and hosted seminars across the United States and abroad regarding a variety of motivational topics.
Performer
Combs' one-man show, ''Man 1 Bank 0'' has played sold-out runs at HBO's 2004
U.S. Comedy Arts Festival
The Comedy Festival, formerly known as the US Comedy Arts Festival, was a comedy festival that ran from 1995 to 2008. The festival included stand-up comedy performances, appearances by the casts of television shows, and has a film component calle ...
held in
Aspen
Aspen is a common name for certain tree species; some, but not all, are classified by botanists in the section ''Populus'', of the ''Populus'' genus.
Species
These species are called aspens:
*'' Populus adenopoda'' – Chinese aspen (China ...
, at the
Spoleto Festival
The ''Festival dei Due Mondi'' (Festival of the Two Worlds) is an annual summer music and opera festival held each June to early July in Spoleto, Italy, since its founding by composer Gian Carlo Menotti in 1958. It features a vast array of conce ...
in
Charleston (where it garnered "Critic's Choice"), in
Winnipeg
Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...
, and at the Comedy Central Stage in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
. The show won "Best of Fest" at the
San Francisco Fringe where it was awarded "Best Solo Comedy," and was an official selection of the
New Zealand International Comedy Festival {{Short description, Annual comedy festival in New Zealand
The New Zealand International Comedy Festival is held simultaneously over three weeks during April/May in Auckland and Wellington. From its beginnings as a 2-day event, the Festival has n ...
and an official selection of the
Just For Laughs Festival in
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...
. The show sold out in
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
during its
off-Broadway
An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...
run at the
Lambs Theatre in summer 2015. In 2012 he debuted his one-man show entitled Foolhardy at the
Orlando Fringe
Media personality
Combs has appeared on several national and international television programs, series and specials, including ''Hard Copy'' and ''Real TV''. He has also appeared on such talk shows as ''The View'', ''Donahue'', ABC's ''World News Tonight'', ''NBC Nightly News'', “Coast to Coast AM” with Art Bell, ''Good Morning America'', ''Montel Williams'' and ''The Late Show''.
Published work
* ''Major in Success'', Ten Speed Press, 1994
* ''Gearing Up (Inside & Out) for a Great Life: A Smart Guide for High School'', Light Matrix Books, 2003
* ''Man 1 Bank 0'', Art Helix, October 18, 2011
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Combs, Patrick
1966 births
Living people
Writers from Bend, Oregon
American writers of Mexican descent
San Francisco State University alumni